Review of Fathom (1967) by Dalia D — 26 Sep 2007

Raquel Welch is a championship skydiver visiting Spain, who agrees to help two Brit-accented secret service members locate an atomic device with the codename fire dragon. Or so she thinks. No sooner has she literally "dropped in" on the bad guy that he tells her he's the good guyâ??an American private detective looking for the same fire dragon. She plays monkey in the middle for a while until a third manâ??a Russkie curio collectorâ??enters the mix; he wants the fire dragon, too, and by now she's found out that it's not an atomic device at all, but a rare and expensive piece of Chinese craftsmanship: a jewel-studded golden dragon figurine. They all duke it out over a variety of locomotive devices: car chases, speed boat accidents, railroad shenanigans, and private jet battles, while poor naive Fathom tries to suss out who's the good guy and who's the bad.

Welch would be better off without the fake tan, fake hair, and fake enthusiasm (it's amazing that her breasts are real), and the famed green bikini scene isn't as scintillating as promised, but the plot (and this is rare for films of its day and kind) is actually mildly involving, if not with one too many turns.